Robert David Wyatt, 70, had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit when he fatally struck pedestrian Edward Phillips on Pine Knoll Drive in the gated senior community Dec. 2, prosecutors said.

Wyatt is an environmental lawyer and senior partner at the Allen Matkins firm’s San Francisco office. He was coming home from a Lafayette restaurant that night in his Bentley when he struck Phillips, who investigators think was waiting for a bus to take him to his regular dinner spot, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro in Walnut Creek, according to Wyatt’s attorney, William Gagen.

The questions yet to be answered, Gagen said, include where was Phillips in the roadway when he was hit and would someone with no alcohol in their system have been able to see him?

“Mr. Phillips was not in a place that you’d expect a person to be,” Gagen said.

Walnut Creek police did several reconstructions of the accident, which contributed to a four-month delay in charges being filed, to the frustration of Phillips’ friends and neighbors. One Rossmoor resident told the Times that many are “very disappointed and perplexed” that Wyatt was not charged with hit-and-run for leaving the accident scene.

Much of the rumors and speculation at Rossmoor surrounding Wyatt has been unfair, Gagen said. Wyatt had no working cellphone that night and so, after assessing that Phillips was critically injured, he drove to a guard station to alert security to summon an ambulance, Gagen said. Wyatt was instructed to wait for police there.

Wyatt is “devastated” by the death of Phillips, who by accounts was a “very popular and kind, pleasant, older gentleman,” Gagen said.

Wyatt is free from jail in lieu of $50,000 bail and is back in court June 30 to schedule his preliminary hearing. His driver’s license is expected to be suspended by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, Gagen said.

“The East Bay Times is honored for its relentless efforts to obtain police body camera videos, inspection data, and other public records in the wake of the deadly Ghost Ship fire,” the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists announced Wednesday.